To begin with, apologies to Chuck Wendig (Twitter) and Vanilla Ice for that title. Moving on…
Just in case you were not completely sold by my recent post about Chuck Wendig, I wanted to include a few other links to give you more of an idea about him. Of course, consider these links NFSW due to language, a safe bet for just about anything Chuck touches.
First, here is the link to Chuck’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. This will give you a better feel of who Chuck is as a person, his sense of humor, his fluency with cursing, and his taste in liquor.
Second, here is a recent post from his blog about making it as a writer. Financially, that is. The key takeaway: it will be very difficult, but it is doable. If you were looking for something easy, look elsewhere. But, for those of you willing to stick it out, Chuck’s piece should be motivating and reassuring. Yes, it will take a while (or so I keep telling myself), and yes, it will be painful (growth usually is). But, I figure, the longer it takes, the more people will quit, and the likelier I will succeed. It can be done, so long as you follow his main piece of advice: ALWAYS BE WRITING. Stay strong, put in the time, and get stronger.
Finally, I wanted to link to a another blog post about the importance of perspective when telling a story. Yes, the post is about a child’s book, but it resonated with me because I had recently realized that a short story I am working on was failing because it was being told from the wrong point of view. The more interesting character–the one facing the greater conflict, the one at risk, the one getting smacked around–needed to be the protagonist. Otherwise, what’s the point? Of course, these thoughts were part and parcel of my discovery that my characters were largely pawns for my plot. Flat, uninteresting pieces of cardboard. So I started ramping up the tension and thinking about motivation, fears, and perspective of all my characters. Make them more real, more interesting. Maybe Chuck’s post will get you thinking about Point of View in a new way too.